Proposed legislation that state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler says will stabilize the health insurance market is back on track after facing pushback from third-party plan administrators.
Last month, Kreidler’s office proposed legislation — sponsored by Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, and Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle — to create a state reinsurance program. The program would provide partial reimbursement to insurance companies for high-cost medical claims that exceed a certain threshold. The state program was designed to mirror the federal reinsurance program, which expired in 2016, that was part of the Affordable Care Act.
The reinsurance program would be capped at $200 million in payments. Kreidler’s office proposed a fee placed on all health plans — including those covering public employees and self-insured groups using third-party administrators — to pay for the program. Including all plans, Kreidler said, would distribute the cost of the program across a larger group, making the monthly, per-person assessment smaller.
“By being that broad, we lowered the individual assessment way down to like $5 per month,” Kreidler said. “It was spread very broadly, which was something I was very eager to accomplish.”